The present invention relates to an ultra-high vacuum gasket which is used in a vacuum apparatus using the ultra-high vacuum, a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, an atomic nucleus physics experimental apparatus, a physics and chemistry experimental apparatus or the like, and to a vacuum apparatus using the ultra-high vacuum gasket.
An article disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 36861/1980 invented by the same inventor has been known as a gasket covered by thermal deposition of an aluminum thin film on the entire or overall surface of a synthetic rubber (trade name: Byton) O-ring.
The ultra-high vacuum gasket is used whereby a superior vacuum apparatus has been proposed in which gas within the atmosphere does not invade into an ultra-high vacuum.
However, in a case where the ultra-high vacuum gasket in which the thin film is covered as a whole is used as a seal between the atmosphere and the ultra-high vacuum, the following problems arise except for the case where the urging force is sufficient:
When the urging force between the ultra-high vacuum gasket in which the thin film is covered as a whole and the flange is small or weak, the atmosphere slightly invades from a contact surface between the covered thin film and the flange, and the vacuum is difficult not to rise. For this reason, a large urging force is required for urging the gasket against the flange.